Hurricanes vs. Islanders Preview 2/11/13

After dropping their last four games, the Islanders will look to turn things around tonight when they face-off against the Carolina Hurricanes at home for the first of three meetings this season.

After dressing two suspended players, Josh Bailey and Lubomir Visnovsky, the Isles played a hard-fought game against the Sabres on Saturday night. Despite outshooting Buffalo 43-15, the Isles fell short in a 3-2 loss, cementing a four-game losing streak.

As most Islander fans will tell you, losing streaks plague the team and inevitably prevent the Isles from making the playoffs. They look to turn things around against Carolina tonight, the only Eastern Conference team who did not beat them last season.

The Hurricanes, who sit second place in their Southeast Division, look to achieve more success on their current road trip. They have acquired 5 out of 8 potential points and play in New Jersey tomorrow.

Canes captain, Eric Staal, has been an overlying factor in the teams success thus far. He is currently on an 8-game point streak, scoring 7 goals in that stretch.

After the Hurricanes went 10-0-2 against the Isles in three seasons, the Isles won all four games against Carolina in the 2011-2012 season. John Tavares had six goals and six assists against the Canes and the Isles scored 5 power play goals on 10 chances.

The Islanders will need John Tavares to be at his best tonight. After hitting the post a handful of times and more painfully on a penalty shot against Buffalo, expect number 91 to come out tonight with the jump to get things done.

In addition, the Isles still need to see productivity from the rest of the team, notably Josh Bailey and Lubomir Visnovsky. After returning from suspensions, Bailey led the team with 7 shots on net and Visnovsky had a plus-2 rating against the Sabres on Saturday night.

The Islanders have announced that Rick DiPietro will make his second start in net of the season. Making his 49th start since the 2008-09 season, DiPietro comes into tonights game with one loss to Boston this season, where he was scored on 4 times on 27 shots.

The New York Islanders host the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at 7pm at the Nassau Coliseum.